Allied Irish Bank Finance Tools

AIB recently launched a new Personal Finance website which is designed to be a key point of access for all their customers' personal banking needs. As part of an overall usability review, Frontend carried out an evaluation and redesign of a series of financial web-tools available on the site.

AIB Personal Finance Tools
Allied Irish Bank is one of Irelands leading banks providing both personal and corporate banking services. AIB recently launched a new Personal Finance website that combines the functionality of several previous websites and as a result contains a considerable amount of information.

The Project
Frontend were contracted to evaluate the usability of the new site and to make design recommendations that would help to maximise its potential for AIB customers. As part of this work, Frontend carried out an evaluation and redesign of a series of financial web-tools available on the site.

The tools included:

• Budget Checklist
• Mortgage Calculator
• Car loan Calculator
• Personal Loan Calculator
• Branch Locator
• Net Worth Calculator
• Save & Invest Wizard
• Borrowing Wizard

Following a heuristic evaluation of the existing tools, a schematic layout was provided for each Tool or Calculator, these layouts showed what should appear at each step, including the text, navigation, overall layout and interactive elements. The specification following these schemas clearly described the intended contents of drop-down lists, validation logic for input fields and any dynamic interface elements.

The Progress Bar clearly indicates to users how many steps there are in a calculator/tool, and where they are in the process. The title should also indicate the type of information required from the user at each stage. As each step is completed, the user should be able to click on previous steps to revise or review information that has already been entered. But, the user should not be able to jump ahead in the process.

The action buttons should explicitly describe what they do. The standard Next and Back buttons have been used on most pages to navigate through the calculators. The Finish button has been used in cases where there is a definite final stage in a calculator. The Apply Online button has been used on all last steps as a next step to an application form, or application process. The Go button is used solely for the Branch locator, as it is a search type utility. The calculate button is used for a single step calculator (i.e. Mortgage Repayment Calculator)

The final step of a tool or calculator should not be a dead end, the user should be provided with a number of next steps or related links. The final stage of all calculators and tools should have an Apply Online button, to link directly to a particular product application form (if available), an email address or telephone number as alternative means of contact / next step. A list of hyperlinks to related information on products, services or guides should also be made available.

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